Property Acquisition

British Land Co PLC
20 October 2004

                                                               20th October 2004



                       BRITISH LAND ACQUIRES £174 MILLION

                             PUBLIC HOUSE PORTFOLIO



The British Land Company PLC has acquired 65 high quality freehold public houses
from Spirit Group.



The purchase price was £174 million, reflecting an initial yield of
approximately 6.1%.  Spirit, the largest managed pub operator in the UK, will
continue to occupy the properties on 30 year leases without a break and with
annual rental uplifts reverting to open market rents from year 15.



British Land has considerable experience in investing in public houses, having
owned a property investment company in partnership with Scottish & Newcastle for
nearly ten years.  This successful joint venture, financed mainly through bank
borrowings, acquired 306 public houses let to Scottish & Newcastle, all but two
of which have now been profitably sold.



British Land's investment director, Bob Bowden, commented "This acquisition
increases the size of our leisure portfolio with high quality public houses at a
higher average lot size than those we owned previously, and let to the leading
pub operator.  We expect to enjoy a long term relationship with Spirit and to be
able to enhance the value of the assets in the longer term".







CONTACTS:



The British Land Company PLC:

Bob Bowden                       Tel:     [phone]
John Weston Smith                         020 7467 2899





Finsbury:

Ed Orlebar                       Tel:     [phone]


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange